Happenings of the Chabad Lubavitch אנ"ש community of Rockland County, New York

Friday, September 18, 2015

Parsha Perspective

By Rabbi Yisroel Shusterman

We have now ushered in a new Jewish year, having taken
on new resolutions and goals with which to enhance our lives, spiritually and
meaningfully. Cheder Chabad of Monsey hopes that these weekly Torah thoughts
will help inspire to achieve those goals.

The entire
Cheder Chabad of Monsey family, wish you and your dear ones a year
replete with goodness, prosperity and good health. As the High Priest blessed
the Jewish people on Yom Kippur in the Holy Temple, may we too all be blessed
from A to Z with…Abundance, Bounty, Caring, Devotion…and
everything good in between, until we reach… Zion, May all Israel be
redeemed in peace, speedily in our days.

This week’s Parsha Perspective is dedicated by Mr.
Binyomin Philipson in memory of his late mother

Mrs. Ellen (Elka bas Zisel) Philipson OBM

At its core, Judaism is about unity: the unity
of the one G‑d, the universe and the unity of all people created in the
image of G‑d. And yet, Judaism also gives the ordinary man an irrevocable right
to his own property—as we see in the Torah’s division of the Land
of Israel to tribes and families, as well as in the command to
celebrate the Jubilee year (where all property is returned to its
original owners every 50 years). The idea of land ownership by definition
creates separation and division within society, contradicting the ideal of
unity. How is it possible for us to live with these opposing ideals in our
philosophy and practice?

This week’s Torah portion, VaYelech, (Devorim [Deuteronomy] 31:1-30) tells
of the last days of Moses’s life. Moses is well aware of this
seeming contradiction between the individual’s right to personal property and
the notion of unity. His people are about to transition from life in the
desert, where there is no ownership of land, to an agrarian life in Israel,
where for the first time, they are to become landowners. Moses knows he has one
final opportunity to teach his people how to balance these opposing ideals.
That is why, on the last day of life, he commands his beloved nation regarding
the Mitzvah of “Hakhel” – the gathering of all Israel to the holy Temple in
Jerusalem on the eighth year, immediately after the Shmittah (sabbatical) year.
In these verses Moses is describing a way to instill the fundamental message of
unity into the hearts and minds of a people who will spend most of their time,
energy and effort working their land. This is done through two commandments: Shemittah,
the sabbatical year during which we are forbidden to work the land for an
entire year, and Hakhel, the gathering in the Temple after the
sabbatical year, when the people are headed back to work for the next six
years.

During the Shemittah year, the seventh year,
every land owner takes a year-long break from working the land, devoting his
time to spiritual pursuits. During that year, all produce that grows in the
field is legally ownerless, and anyone is free to enter any orchard or field to
enjoy its produce. This mitzvah serves as a powerful reminder to the
people that there is more to life than amassing wealth, that their true essence
is the soul not the body, and they have to devote time to feeding the soul,
just as they devote time to feeding the body.

And then, at the end of the long sabbatical,
just as everyone is anxious to get back to working the land, comes the mitzvah
for all the nation to gather in the Temple to hear the words of the Torah.
Moses is telling the people that if they want to be able to juggle the
blessings of private property and the unified existence that is the core truth of
Judaism, then before they get back to the field, they have to reenact the
giving of the Torah at Sinai. They have to gather together—men, women and
children—as at Sinai, when all the children of Israel stood around the mountain
"as one person with one heart," united around the words and teachings
of the Torah. Moses understood that the children, the future generations, also
need to experience this powerful feeling of unity which comes through the
unifying teachings of the Torah, rather than through material blessings, which
can sometimes cause division.

Through these commandments, the people learned
that although they may each possess property and material wealth, they are not
defined, and should therefore not define themselves, by their material possessions
and achievements. Moses was telling each individual: “Although your house may
be nicer than your neighbor's, you are still one. You are one, because your
soul, the core of who you are, is one with your neighbor’s soul. The material
possessions that divide you are nothing more than an external garment. They are
not who you are, and therefore cannot separate you from your friend.”

And then there is us.

We, whose bodies did not stand at Sinai, who
did not stand shoulder to shoulder with the entire nation of Israel at the
reading of the Torah in the Temple, we too must meditate on this message each
year, when the story of Moshe's last day on this earth is read in the
Torah. We must close our eyes and imagine standing with all our brothers and
sisters at the foot of Sinai, listening to the words of G‑d and taking the
message of Sinai to heart.

If, with all our differences, we can define
ourselves as souls sent to this world for a spiritual purpose; if the society
we create values the individual for his or her spiritual essence, then we can
have a unified society. Our homes, fields, cars and retirement accounts may
look different, but we know that we are one, "like one person with one
heart."